I watched the match between Eternal Fire and Movistar Riders today. It was crucial as it was going to determine ENCE's opponent in the semi final.
I must admit that Eternal Fire surprised me a lot. There was a huge improvement in their effort. Of course I'm not saying that they were perfect because there were still some visible problems. At least the players were better than the previous day strategically. 16-10 on Vertigo and 16-12 on Inferno sealed the deal by 2-0 for them. xfl0ud and XANTARES were very impressive on Vertigo. XANTARES was incredible on both maps as usual actually. His aim is insanely good and the team are benefiting from his extra frags a lot. imoRR was surprisingly solid on Inferno. He was still impatient about peeking someone but at least his statistics still stayed great (25K-15D, 112.0 ADR).
I'd recommend you to check out xfl0ud's amazing spray transfer and 1v2 clutch on Vertigo
:
https://clips.twitch.tv/TrustworthyPlainTeaWutFace-OlmAf7qMS53D-mk5?tt_content=url&tt_medium=clips_apiThe semi final matches are going to be played tomorrow.
It's the first time I've seen Eternal Fire playing a match with this enthusiasm and playing to win as a team. It was always individually before, and today we saw how good they were when they could play as a team. Yes, I spoke a bit early for the Xfloud and Imorr substitution because I've really gotten so used to seeing Majer as IGL that it was promising to see a game like this after constant substitutions and defeats.
Hah, I've posted about Eternal Fire should focus on bringing young talent and stop beating a dead horse. Seems like they did that recently with xfl0ud. I watched the Eternal Fire vs Moviestar Riders last night. Damn, the kid had the potential there. xantares and imoRR look solid with their crispy aim and spray. woxic is woxic. Interesting how they let paz become igl instead of keeping maj3r in that role. This roster from Eternal Fire looks fine, beat Moviestar Rider 2-0 and Moviestar Riders was at #15 HLTV. If they can keep this roster up, and improve more on the strats side (still a bit wobbly last night in some rounds), they can push into the top ten HLTV.
woxic and xantares can stay in Eternal Fire since they carry the team hard. maj3r is igl so unless they found a better igl but also Turkish, else he is also staying. That leaves paz and imoRR as free to swap out if they found someone better. Usually, pro has a young talent or two on their team to future-proof. Also, the young talents has more room to grow while oldies already hit the skill ceiling, they can't contribute to the future of the team anymore. paz seems like the latter here.
Also just found Eternal Fire did have an academy for homegrown young Turkish into the pro-CS, called Eternal Fire Academy. xfl0ud (kid is 19 years old, quite decent in rifler) got benched and they signed up with paz as currently. btw, the chance for Eternal Fire to pass the group stage, into the playoff is too low. Too many 'if' which adds a lot of pressure on their own game. I doubt they could get a clean 2-0 win to fuel that hope.